Targeted Call for Project Proposals

Deadline: Jun 2, 2019  
CALL EXPIRED

INTRODUCTION

The Interreg IPA CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro is a trilateral cross border cooperation Programme co- financed by the European Union under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) in the 2014–2020 programming period.

The approved programme, including priority axes, specific objectives, eligible areas, financial allocation and programme strategic goals may be found at https://www.italy-albania-montenegro.eu/programme/official- docs and further described in details in the Manual (01 Strategy, Factsheet 1.1.) at: https://www.italy- albania-montenegro.eu/tools/programme-manual/strategy.

1. TARGETED CALL

Definition

This call for project proposals is targeted to specific topics, which have been addressed in the adopted Cooperation Programme, but they have not been tackled, or not sufficiently been tackled, by the first call for standard projects and by the thematic projects. In this sense, this is a strategic and key call for the purpose of achieving the programme objectives.

These topics have been identified through a gap analysis developed by the Joint Secretariat, discussed and adopted at the Joint Monitoring Committee meeting of Podgorica on 17 April 2018.

Accordingly, project proposals, which potentially contribute to fill in these gaps, will receive additional points and have more chances to be financed, as specified in the selection criteria below.

PUGLIA REGION – Managing Authority | Interreg IPA CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro Corso Sonnino 177, 70121 Bari (IT) +39 0805406545 js@italy-albania-montenegro.eu www.italy-albania-montenegro.eu

Missing topics identified

For each Specific Objective, these are the missing topics for which gaps have been identified:

● S.O. 1.1. Competitiveness (only small scale projects):

• ○  Social innovation/inclusion;

• ○  Blue and green economy.
  Guidance at: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=1 https://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/policy/blue_growth_en

● S.O. 2.1. Tourism:

• ○  Family tourism;

• ○  Sport/adventure tourism;

• ○  Youngsters tourism.

  Guidance at: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/tourism/offer_en Indicative examples PANORAMED:

  http://www.enpicbcmed.eu/sites/default/files/live_your_tour_final_0.pdf https://emblematic.interreg-med.eu / https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/tourism/offer_en

● S.O. 2.2. Culture:

○ Arts other than visual arts (music, literature, etc.).
Guidance at: https://ec.europa.eu/culture/policy/cultural-creative-industries_en

• ●  S.O. 3.1 Environment (no resource available)

• ●  S.O. 3.2. Energy

  • ○  Common energy planning;

  • ○  Adoption of European standards in the RES and RUE sector for public administrations. Guidance at: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-efficiency
    Indicative example: http://www.alter-energy.eu/

● S.O. 4.1. Transport:

• ○  Multimodal connections;

• ○  Custom procedures;

• ○  Connections between the main cross border transport infrastructures and the EU trans-

European corridors;

• ○  Improvement of maritime connections;

• ○  Optimization of out of standard loads.

Guidance at: https://ec.europa.eu/transport/home_en
Indicative examples PANORAMED: http://www.adbmultiplatform.eu/adb/;

https://ec.europa.eu/transport/home_en

Project FREIGHT4ALL

 

If applicable, projects may identify one or more topics belonging to the same Specific Objective (not across objectives). Only the contribution to the topics of the same specific objective of the project are considered for the additional points.

Capitalisation

Moreover, the project proposals, which plan concrete and precise capitalization actions, as well as build up synergies with existing projects and initiatives may receive additional points. Even more if the projects precisely avoid overlapping especially with existing projects of partners / areas / activities already financed in the first call, of which the partners are aware.

EUSAIR

Additional points are foreseen also for project proposals having objectives and activities, which are explicitly foreseen in the EUSAIR action plan (see https://www.adriatic-ionian.eu/library/). In this case the project shall clearly outline how these activities are going to be followed up on within the EUSAIR and with the EUSAIR stakeholders. Together with the existing criteria, up to 8 points may be given in this criterion.

SMALL SCALE PROJECTS

The programme bodies intend to contribute to simplification for beneficiaries, especially small organisations, while using one of the foreseen simplified cost options (SCOs). At the same time the programme intends to test innovative financing options also in compliance with the general simplification principle set in the ERDF and IPA regulations.

Applicants can choose to apply for a targeted “normal project” or for “small scale project”. The same partnership cannot submit the same proposal for both typologies.

Project proposals submitted as “small scale projects” follow the restricted rules defined by the Annex 2 “SMALL SCALE PROJECTS”.

 

2. PROVISIONAL FINANCIAL ALLOCATION

The overall provisional financial allocation for the 4 priority axes is as follows:

(TABLE NOT AVAILABLE)

 

Co-financing

The EU contribution to projects shall be up to 85% of eligible expenditure, while 15% shall be provided according to the national systems. Concerning Italy, the national co-financing is guaranteed to public partners by CIPE Resolution n. 10 of 28 of January 2015. The national co-financing is not provided to eligible private partners, which have to contribute to projects’ proposals with their own resources. For Albania and Montenegro, each partner is obliged to provide co-financing at project’s level.

Pre-financing

Pre-financing 20% of IPA contribution by signature of subsidy contract offset of pre-financing in equal shares in the three reporting periods. Private lead partners shall be required to provide a financial guarantee for the pre-financing.

According to the reimbursement principle, the partners shall have financial capacity to advance all costs, which shall be reimbursed upon the foreseen verifications on paid expenditures.

For “Small Scale Projects” the rules are specified in the Annex 2.

Open ranking list

The outcome of the project selection shall be an open ranking list, which is going to be valid until all funds of the programme are absorbed. This means, that in case funds become available in a specific objective, e.g. because of project savings or thematic project allocation not fully absorbed, the next project of the list is going to be financed.

Two separate open ranking lists are foreseen: one for “standard” and one for “small scale projects”.

De- commitment targets

If a project partner does not reach at least 85% of the spending target for a specific period1, which was fixed in the approved application form, the Managing Authority may de-commit the difference between target and the certified amount, which will become available for the specific Priority Axis, unless this is not due to partner’s failures, of which the partner shall provide evidence.

Eligibility rules

Detailed eligibility rules for the expenditures are specified in the programme manual fact sheet no. 4.10 published at https://www.italy-albania-montenegro.eu/tools/programme-manual/implementation.

For “Small Scale Projects” the rules are specified in the Annex 2.

Location of the operation

All the project activities have to be located in the Programme eligible area, in compliance with art. 44 of the IPA Implementing Regulation (Commission Implementing Regulation no. (EU) No 447/2014).

 

3. PROJECT PARTNERS

Eligibility of partners according to location

Lead partners and project partners must be established in the eligible territories of the Countries participating in the Programme. Partners having the registered office outside the Programme area, but the branch office established in the Programme area, will be eligible for funding, provided that the branch office has full legal capacity2.

Eligibility of partners according to legal status

The following types of partners, according to their legal status, are eligible for funding: - Public bodies;

- Bodies governed by public law3;

- Non-profit organisations, established according to the applicable legal framework/law in the respective country4.

Partners shall not fulfill exclusion criteria set in art. 106 and 107 of Regulation (EU) No 966/2012.

Non-profit organizations must be operational for at least 12 months before the launch of the call for proposals.

NGOs or Social Partners (Chambers of commerce, business organisations, etc.) are encouraged to participate.

Partnerships

The minimum eligible partnership must involve at least one partner from each participating Country and Italian Region:

- at least 1 partner from Puglia (Region of the EU Member State); - at least 1 partner from Molise (Region of the EU Member State); - at least 1 partner from Albania;
- at least 1 partner from Montenegro.

The total number of partners must not exceed five (5) including the Lead Partner.
Projects can also have associated partners, taking part to the activities without receiving financing, for a maximum of one per partner.

For “Small Scale Projects” the rules are specified in the Annex 2.

The partnership has to appoint a Lead Partner, who is responsible for the preparation and submission of the application form. In case of approval of the project, the Lead Partner takes over the responsibility for management, communication, implementation, and coordination of activities among the involved partners.

Limitations for specific partners

In compliance with the targeted approach of this call, in order to balance participation of partners over- represented in the first call and thematic projects, as well as to encourage big organisations to strategically plan their participation, a limitation for certain types of partners is set.

 

Legal entities being universities5, research centers / bodies, as well as national ministries or Italian regional authorities6 are allowed to apply as lead partners in maximum one project per specific objective and as partner in maximum two projects per specific objective, i.e. max. 3 projects per S.O. in total, i.e. max. 12 in total, in addition to Small Scale Projects, which are counted separately. After the call closure, the number of applications per legal body of these typologies shall be counted in chronological order of submission and all applications submitted after the maximum number of projects is reached per partner, shall be excluded at the eligibility check.7 Coordination of activities of all project proposals submitted within past, current and future calls by the same partner will be carefully assessed.

In compliance with art. 11 (4) of Reg. EU No. 1299/2013, partners shall cooperate in the development and implementation of projects. In addition, they shall cooperate in the staffing or the financing of projects, or in both.

For “Small Scale Projects” the rules are specified in the Annex 2.

 

4. PROJECT SIZE

The total budget of the projects must respect the following financial thresholds (including EU + national public or private co-financing):

• Maximum budget (EU contribution + national co-financing) = EUR 850.000 (except for PA 4, which is EUR 1.200.000)

• Minimum budget (EU contribution + national co-financing) = EUR 400.000.

No minimum budget per partner is required. However, projects shall demonstrate a balanced distribution of tasks and budget among partners (see quality criteria B5, B7 and B9), in order to ensure that each partner concretely contributes to achieving the projects goals. As a general principle, a balanced budget per partner is not lower than 10% of the total budget. Lower partner budget should be justified.

These requirements do not apply to Small Projects, for which the Annex 2 is applicable.

 

5. PROJECT DURATION AND PREPARATION-CLOSURE LUMPSUMS

The project implementation shall not be longer than 18 months, starting from the project start date, set during the contracting procedure. A prolongation of additional 6 months may be approved by the JMC, if duly justified.

Expenditures incurred to develop the project (project preparation) before the project start date will not be reimbursed, but are covered by a lump sum of 10.000,00 EUR (IPA 85%, co-financing 15%) to the lead partner. According to the same principle, all expenditures incurred to close the project (project closure) after the project end date will be covered by a lump sum of 5.000,00 EUR (IPA 85%, co-financing 15%) to the lead partner.

For “Small Scale Projects” the rules are specified in the Annex 2.

 

Albanian faculties, having separate legal personality within the same university, are allowed to apply as Lead Partner to only 1 project and as Project Partner to only 1 project per Specific Objective

Even though made of several departments or operative branches, the legal entity is considered as a single entity if it is established and operates as one body from the legal and fiscal point of view (e.g. a single VAT / registration number, a single statute, a single balance sheet, etc.). Even though heads of department, faculty, institute etc. might have a power to sign and represent the legal body, it remains one single legal body. Only for the purpose of this limitation, Regione Puglia and Regione Molise are considered as National Ministries in Albania and Montenegro, while local authorities in Albania and Montenegro are not counted as regional authorities.
7 In order to avoid that high quality projects are rejected because they are submitted later than poorer quality projects by the same organization, internal coordination is required, e.g. through an office/person.

 

6. APPLICATION PROCEDURE

The project proposals have to be submitted in one step electronic procedure through the Electronic Monitoring System of the Programme (eMS). The address of the eMS wil be published on the Programme webportal with the publication of the call.

The project lead partner shall submit it on behalf of the partnership. All the compulsory documents to be filled in for submitting a project proposal are included in the Application Package available at www.italy- albania-montenegro.eu.

The Application Package includes the following documents:

a) Application Form

b) LP/PP Statements duly stamped (if stamp is applicable) and signed by all participating partners (standard form provided) and for associated partners a declaration, including state aid assessment8;

c) Statute and/or legal Act which sets up the partner institution/organization involved in the proposal, in which its legal representation is specified. Statute and/or legal act can be submitted also in the national language. A translation into English is preferable.

d) For private partners, the balance sheets of the last two accounting years, or of the last accounting year in case of organization established only in the last 12 months, issued according to national legislation.

The Application Form and LP/PP Statement must be filled in English in all their parts and the Lead Partners and partners must not modify the templates provided by the Programme. The Lead Partner is responsible for submitting the project proposal.

It means that the Lead Partner has to collect the required documents from all involved partners and submit the project proposal according to the application procedures. Before the submission of the Application Form, the Lead Partner needs to register in the eMS. The Lead Partner must fill in and submit the Project Application Form ONLY online at the electronic Monitoring system (eMS).

 

7. APPLICATION FORM

The Application Form is structured according to the following chapters: • Project summary;
• Partnership;
• Project description;

• Work plan, structured according to work packages; • Project budget overview;
• Partners’ budget;
• Attachments.

 

The presence of State Aid can be confirmed only if all the following 5 cumulative criteria are fulfilled 1) The measure must confer a benefit or advantage on the recipient which it would not otherwise have received (which is always the case for any Interreg Programme); 2) It must be granted by a EU Member State or through State resources (which is always the case for any Interreg Programme); 3) It must selectively favour certain undertakings or the production of certain goods; 4) It must distort or threaten to distort competition; 5) It must affect trade between EU Member States. All project activities have to comply with Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014, Commission Regulation (EU) No 1407/2013 of 18 December 2013 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid.

Interreg IPA CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro - Targeted Call for Project Proposals 7

The submitted project proposal needs to demonstrate: • What it wants to change and why;
• What it needs to deliver to obtain the change;
• How it will do it and what resources it needs for it.

The submitted project proposal must show a direct link to the Programme intervention logic and its contribution to the Programme objectives achievement. The project main overall objective contributes to the Programme priority specific objective; the project overall objective describes the general, strategic and long term change the project intends to support for the benefit of the identified target group(s). The project specific objective describes the specific and immediate effects of the project that can be realistically achieved within the project life-time; the project result contributes to the Programme result, even if project results will not be directly aggregated on Programme level, as Programme result indicators measure changes in the whole Programme area.

The project outputs contribute to the achievement of Programme outputs so they can be aggregated at Programme level.

Project activities within the frame of the Programme shall be organised around work packages, i.e. a group of related project activities necessary to produce project deliverables and outputs. Each work package, structured in activities, shall provide information on the partners involved, the description of the related deliverables and expected outputs, and the related budget.

The partnership can structure its project proposal according to a maximum number of work packages, keeping in mind that FOUR of them are compulsory:

1) Project Management, describing how management on strategic and operational level will be carried out in the project. This work package includes also costs related to external controller, if any, which are appointed according to the Italian decentralized control system9;

2) Communication, including the strategic planning of communication activities and a clear indication of the target group(s) to address. A web space will be made available in the Programme webportal to all selected projects, to be used as project webportal. A logo will also be provided to all selected projects. In the implementation manual more guidance will be given;

3) Project implementation – which can consist of further work packages, which describe what the partnership intends to implement to reach the foreseen goals. Each project proposal shall contribute to the realization of at least 1 Programme output as set in the cooperation Programme; project partners have to explain how project outputs feed Programme output indicators.

4) Pilot action. Each project proposal has to include at least one innovative and concrete pilot action, which shall provide for wide visibility and concrete results in the territories. In the WP description, the project partners have to precisely describe what are the innovative aspects of this action, e.g. in terms of innovative products / outputs resulting from the activities, as well as in terms of innovative processes to reach specific goals. It shall include a brief analysis of the state of play in the concerned topic (i.e. the baseline), in order to stress the elements, making the action particularly innovative (i.e. the innovative added value).

5) Non-compulsory work packages: preparation for the Lead Partner only (covering all costs before the project duration on a lump sum basis). Additional implementation work packages are also non-compulsory.

For “Small Scale Projects” the rules are specified in the Annex 2.

9 The remuneration fee for external controllers shall be in proportion to the complexity of the operation, its value and duration, It shall be adequate and consistent to the budget of the project. In any case, the choice between the minimum and maximum fee should be left to the free market.

Interreg IPA CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro - Targeted Call for Project Proposals 8

 

8. SELECTION PROCEDURE

Following the submission of the project proposals, each of them will be subject to a formal assessment on:

• -  Eligibility;

• -  Quality check of technical nature.
  The project proposals are also subject to a policy check by the Joint Steering Committee.

 

9. ELIGIBILITY CHECK

The project proposals are checked against following technical criteria:

•   Submission in time

•   Submission through the eMS

•   Obligatory annexes correct and submitted

•   Supporting documents duly filled, signed and stamped (if stamp is applicable)

•   Geographical location of activities and partners

•   Eligibility of Lead Partner

•   Eligibility of Project Partners

•   Requirements regarding the minimum and maximum number of partners, including maximum numbers of applications for universities, research bodies, ministries and Italian regional authorities.

•   Maximum co-financing rate respected

•   Minimum and maximum amounts per project respected

•   “Non-profit organizations” Partners registered at least in the last 12 month

•   The project includes at least four work packages (Project management, Implementation, Communication, Pilot action)

The formal assessment will be performed by the Joint Secretariat with the support of the respective National Authorities and National Info Points, under the supervision of the Managing Authority as responsible for the procedure. Only the project proposals that fulfill the admissibility and eligibility criteria are admitted to the further quality assessment, while the not eligible ones are rejected by the decision of the JMC.

For “Small Scale Projects” the rules are specified in the Annex 2.

Partners may be requested to provide minor integrations or to correct minor clerical errors in the documents, upon approval by the Managing Authority and within a fixed deadline. Besides these cases, following errors lead to an automatic rejection, without possibility to amend or correct these:

1. 1)  Delayed submission or submission not through the eMS;

2. 2)  Missing statements, or not duly signed and stamped (if stamp is applicable), i.e. no or insufficient evidence of the willingness of the legal representative of the partner’s organisation;

3. 3)  Incorrect statements submitted, e.g. substantially changed statements;

4. 4)  One or more key documents are missing, e.g. accompanying act attesting the legal power of the signatory or lack of evidence on the capacity of partners;

5. 5)  Maximum and minimum budget amounts for project proposal are exceeded;

Interreg IPA CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro - Targeted Call for Project Proposals 9

6. 6)  Partners not having autonomous legal seat in the eligible area;

7. 7)  The signatory has not the legal power to represent the partner’s organisation;

8. 8)  Number of applications exceeds the rule on maximum number of applications;

9. 9)  Missing one or more compulsory work packages (Project management, Implementation, Communication, Pilot action).

 

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